You dont actively participate in the world, but thats how you comment. They purposely didnt. The next thing I want you to talk about is where theater is going. Hamilton absolutely is similar, and I also think that there is something in a world where everything is digital. SL: I think storytelling is going to continue to evolve into different forms and formats. You cant keep doing that. Were sounding old. . I saw it recently, and its about isolation. Its fascinating. We have seen kids leave. She has a lot of wisdom from all of those years of pain and family therapy, a jaundiced view of the world. I think it goes back to this authenticity. Audition season's in full swing, so I thought I'd share a clip from my self-tape for the Dear Evan Hansen national tour! He'll just hold on. How did this become a phenomenon? Right, and not even then because you start looking up things. Filled with a murderer's row of talented musical actors all chewing into meaty roles while singing their hearts out, Dear Evan Hansen is an ode to sincerity . We have parents who come with each other on their theater date night, and they come back and they bring their kids. I think not just in my family but every family. Your director Michael did Rent. I remember when Rent came out. Perhaps the story of Evan Hansen could fit into that format, but I feel like what we have, the musical Dear Evan Hansen, is just that. How Trump uses it is fascinating. Phone numbers were never meant to protect or identify us, but we use them to do that all the time. Do you imagine a future where that doesnt have to be what we do, like tape it and make it? This election, fake news everywhere kind of thing, and now the president just uses it as a catch phrase. Other sets by this creator. Its a musical about a high school student with social anxiety disorder and social media problems. You dont know theyre happy. Then a week later, two of them divorced. It is a duet sung by Connor's father and Evan, titled "To Break in A Glove." Though it is literally talking about the correct way to break in a baseball glove, it can also be talking about . I remember the school saying it wasnt terrible like this, but it wasnt one where she shouldnt have been in the video, and was, and this and that. When I was talking to Jeffrey Seller, and he said that he thought that online had so much to do, the conversation thats just continued on and on and on about this show. Absolutely. How long have you been developing it, Stacey? I think she is an incredible depiction of contemporary motherhood, whether youre a single mom or not, busy, under pressure, trying hard, absolutely love your child, but in the daily rush of things doesnt always get everything right. But also be confident. Is that true? It just continues. She has a very bitter sense of humor. When she admits to being afraid of Connor, the moment is brushed aside as she, too, is duped by Evan's fairy-tale portrait of a loving brother. But they want to continue the relationship. I think, from scene to scene, that changes, but I think Michael Greif and I have represented the parental point of view here, and theres a line that A lot of confusion over it, go over the confusion, and what is this, and what does it do, and I dont understand it, and its technical. My very last question which I ask everybody, and maybe here well do it a little differently. 'Dear Evan Hansen' adaptation is 'a total misfire,' 'one of the worst movie-musicals ever made,' critics say Published Fri, Sep 10 2021 2:05 PM EDT Updated Fri, Sep 10 2021 2:38 PM EDT Sarah . Dear Evan Hansen. A letter that was never meant to be seen, a lie that was never . Film adaptation of the Tony and Grammy Award-winning musical about Evan Hansen, a high school senior with Social Anxiety disorder and his journey of self-discovery and acceptance following the suicide of a fellow classmate. We had bands of teenagers come in the beginning who loved Ben Platt, our star, from the Pitch Perfect movies, but they want to come back with their parents, and talk to their parents afterward. Monologues are presented on StageAgent for educational purposes only. They werent sweaty until you started worrying that they were sweaty, which made them sweaty, so you put them under the hand dryer in the bathroom. When I first heard the lyrics, I could have sworn that these guys were sitting at my breakfast table, that they had literally just taken notes and written a song about me. People are going back to handmade in some ways, and people are really hungering for SL: Exactly. Social media used to be free. SM: It gives him something fun to do too. SM: I think the power of live theater is very potent, especially with a tale like this. Whats important now when youre doing that as youre moving to Broadway? I saw the early versions of it. One of the most compelling musical films that relates to neurodiversity and social anxiety is Dear Evan Hansen, a 2021 adaptation of the Tony Award-winning musical about an isolated high school senior who becomes the motivational force behind a campaign for mental health awareness following the suicide of a fellow student.. All right, Ill follow you. We dont really live in that world anymore. Were going to talk about, the musical, that and more, but first lets about a little bit of your background, each of you. It was that and Angels in America were very big deals. It actually took me a couple of years of watching the show every night to really understand her plight. Letter #4: Evan Hansen to Connor Murphy. Thats all I mean. To make actual connections, no, because you do make actual connections by the end from fake news, which I thought was really, its kind of a mind fog, but it was interesting to me. What do you hope to accomplish, each of you? Dear Evan Hansen. with monologues . Today is going to be a amazing day and here's why. Evan Hansen, through Val Emmich's ( The Reminders) skillful interpretation, is a complex, well-developed character whose struggles with depression and anxiety read painfully true. Offended by the "girly" clothes worn by his daughter's elementary school art teacher, one parent has taken aim at . Being as authentic as possible, realistic, organic, the way that you can depict things on the stage, the projections we have on our show are not something you would have seen in a show even two or three years ago. It was actually really meaningful. SM: Well, its good to hear you say that. Stacey and Steven, welcome to Recode Decode. But also confident; that's super important. In the wake of the election and people feeling all sorts of feelings and trauma, there was Social media actually did become a refuge for a lot of people, and a place to feel. Giving a speech at Connor's memorial assembly, Evan soon shoots to fame, the Connor Project growing after his speech is put online, many people empathizing with Evan's words. - The fourth letter in "Sincerely, Me" and the final letter of the first act. That problem, its the plot point. The thing I feel about the relationship between the show and whats happening in the world is, I remember we had rehearsal the day after the election, and showing up to rehearsal, everyone was so depressed. I first met Stevens colleagues, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, and fell in love with their music, and really took them out to lunch one day, came with a whole bunch of ideas from my older-generation head, and within five minutes at the lunch table realized that they would never want to do a musical version of Edith Whartons something -something, but I didnt want to leave without working with them. Its a beautiful song that Benj and Justin have written. Teens can still click right on through the new screen time limit. producer and book writer of the Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen.. Then it was so relevant to today at the same time. I do feel like people are hungering for something that is ephemeral and something thats just here and now, because everything else is permanent and online. Ive met Alana a hundred times. Then also, the hashtag, my favorite expression is hashtagavism, that we get these hashtags. The school said, Well, we dont want to be punitive. I said, No, we want to be punitive. I wanted that tradition to continue where you have that collective live experience, where the turntable might stop, or just the experience that real actors are acting on their guts and instincts right in front of you. All of those people are actually real people too that we asked just among our fan group to send us videos of themselves. Then once she gets the letters, she uses them like shes almost a journalist, like, I got the memo, or something like that. Approachable. Easy to talk to. The musical opened on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre in December 2016, after the show's world premiere at the Arena Stage in . Youre also not trying to do lesson learning. I know Hamilton didnt put things online, like a ton of stuff. You feel like youre there. If you go on Instagram, youll see all sorts of drawings and poems and songs. Theres always an outsider, and theres often a story with a moral tale that has a lie, and then the truth comes out, and the catharsis of that, and the redemption and the forgiveness is what makes audiences feel very good. 3. Today in the red chairs are Stacey Mindich and Steven Levenson, the producer and book writer of Dear Evan Hansen. Its a musical about a high school student with social anxiety disorder struggling to connect with people around him, including his crush, Zoe, and her social outcast brother Connor. Youll receive a black mirror, where youre going to have that. Whereas if you adapt a musical into a film, or adapt it into a TV series or a VR, then it becomes that. In that song, which becomes really a soliloquy, we see this person Evan, just his soul is bared. Dear Evan Hansen explores the meaning of family, particularly found family, as the teenage characters find new sources of familial support and acceptance. But I think whats interesting is the fresh trends of whats happening now, because eight years ago, Facebook was not as big as it is [now]. Do you not do that? It is. ap micro unit 3 id's. 45 terms. Just, uh, you knowbe true to yourself. After one of these missives is stolen by a classmate who subsequently takes his own life, the deceased's parents believe it to be a genuine . Theres been some shows that have been real touchdowns, like Hamilton and some others that have been really Theres a new, I cant remember the latest one, but theres a bunch that Maybe its The Grand Hotel, one that seems fantastic in some ways. That is something as Stacey said that is organic and then we cant control. SM: I think if we want people to relate to the show, then the idea really is that I always said, If every mother in that audience doesnt ultimately want to hug Evan, then were not doing the right thing. We want everyone to essentially be kind and feel a warmth about our show. SL: Exactly, and then what we wanted to avoid was ever commenting on the technology, but rather allowing it to be part of the fabric of the story, exactly, because we dont comment on the fact that were on our phones all the time as were on our phones all the time, but its become our way of being in the world. Something we talked about really early on was this was like six years ago, so Facebook and Twitter were really coming into their own, and it felt like whenever there was a natural disaster or a celebrity passed away, there would be the strange public ritual of people going on social media and somehow identifying with the tragedy. See you, rather. I just did an interview with Alison Bechdel. But also. Snowballs, and then social media is the key snowball, or as it amplifies and creates the situation that improves his life, and also makes the horrible situation worse. SM: But in 25 years, they may have all been over and done with that panic. It's a testament to the songwriting prowess of La La Land duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul that Dear Evan Hansen has gotten anywhere. Benj was astounded that basically his whole class identified with it, wrote their college essays about it. . SM: Theyre an important part of the fabric of the whole thing. Not all of them hit. SM: Heidi Hansen, yeah, Evan's mom. We want some cause for what theyre learning, the things. Can you talk about that idea of do you think he pays enough for what hes done, or does he have to pay?